Ah, glucose -- ah, sugar sugar --
I used you up and you left me flat;
Now I'll have to get my kicks from fat.
Oh, glucose, glucose, sugar, sugar,
The honeymoon is over now.

Jargons demystified:

ATP - adenosine triphosphate, the "money" of energy inside all of you cells

GLUT4 - glucose transporter type 4. The transporter protein that carries glucose across cell surface membranes. This variant of glucose transporter is found in muscles, its number is increased by the presence of insulin

Thursday, October 28, 2010

I am very sure that most of you use Twitter to share the moments of your life and catch up with friends on how they're doing. And we get excited over things that come by once in a while, either it's a meeting of the minds during an event or happenings that unite us, things we show a great cause for.

Getting excited, WE TWEET! It's great sharing our minds revolving around a cause that brings us together, our timelines will never stop telling the story.

Twitter is a great way to show our passion, but what about a specialised service that helps us to keeping track of tweets centred around an event? It has been shown that number of tweets can spike up to 3200 per second around major events (normal load: 750 per second). Expecting more than 30 entries per minute, it's hard to keep track of things using Twitter search.

For this purpose, I introduce you Distlr, optimised for keeping up with event stream.

The home page of Distlr.com

When you reach the home page, sign in with your Twitter account. After entering a #hashtag for an event you're interested for, you'll be directed to the live stream. The screen is pretty self exploratory, plus the feed streams and refreshes automatically.

You're free to reply and RT any entry. They're right there.

For this example, I typed #budget2011 and hit Go. What are we finding for? It's the Malaysian Government's budget for 2011.

Clicking on the "Popular" tab, let's check out what are the popular retweets...

Number (counts) of retweets for entries is there to satisfy your crave of numbers.

If you come across an interesting person, point over their profile picture. One click and you're now following him/her! Or else, by clicking on the profile picture yield other interesting stuff. Try clicking on pictures on the stream and under "Top User", each gives different results. Try it!

Too many entries coming in? You can search tweets according to *trending* keywords at the right hand column.

Oh-em-gee this is so funny. Here you are, a filtered stream with your keyword of interest.

Do have a try of Distlr and watch an event at your fingertips! Made in Australia.

Ever since I come into contact with Christianity since my high school days, all the love shared by the people, the generosity shown to the needy, the purpose in life that gives direction, the heart of living a holy life to bring glory to the Creator and the faith in Him to overcome difficulties, they never fail to impress me. Or even, love your enemy that seem to be the best solution, if not for the sake of Kingdom but also for the sake of your health that is to bring peace to my social surroundings. The weekly church that gives me the opportunity to be a better person, on the notion of faith comes by hearing.

All of these are invigorating nourishments that keeps me forward, making everyday fresh.

Growing up from a traditional Chinese family, my parents keeping with their Taoist-Buddhist ways, has also left an indelible mark on me. Compassion, the central value in Buddhism, goes well with my new faith. Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by the idols placed on altar, anthropomorphic they are indeed, it was my maternal grandfather who taught me, they have their names. Being a foolish kid that I was, I never really understood what those stuff placed on the altar are for. Through the years, I grew in understanding, although not well versed in what the items mean, at the very least I knew to show reverence to those religious objects.

Suddenly.... my maternal grandfather departed. A person who loved and understood me that he was, I grieved on his demise, I am thankful to have him as my grandfather. As per the Chinese tradition, his name will forever be remembered on the ancestral tablet.

Getting to know Planetshakers in Melbourne since I started university was a turning point in my life. I am made anew, and be at peace with all.

Being a Chinese, carrying the heritage and lineage of something so ancient, also as the eldest in the family, I have my responsibility. Being a first generation Christian, converted to bring joy and blessing. But.... this one thing gets in the way.

I know that Christians have totally forgotten about the ancestral worshipping, they worship God and God alone. Being at the crossroads, I am in a kind of dilemma. My late grandfather loves me so much, and I of course will remember him for what he has done. Now, you said that not paying the respect with a joss stick to the ancestral altar is showing disrespect to a grandparent who loved me so much.

That's when faith collides with tradition that gets in my way. This is a storm I've always been seeking an answer for. I've read countless opinions and heard about practices, there are so many stances to the same issue. This is personal, yet contentious.

The old has passed away, why would I need to adore those that are dead and gone? What about the question of filial piety then? Shouldn't you and I fulfill it during life, that's all the enough time for us to honour; any act beyond death of either is considered too late? As I have been told, it's an irony that children argue with parents in life, but upon death children are asked to show filial piety and worship their parents' spirits.

And now, why parents fear so much about children's conversion into Christianity? Really, there is nothing to be afraid about Jesus. The real reason turns out to be: the FEAR of losing cultural tradition.

Monday, October 25, 2010

While I was busy watching athletes in action in the Commonwealth Games at New Delhi, another event, worthy of attention, no other than Nobel Prize announcements for groundbreaking works that left their indelible mark on humanity.

Why am I so particular about Nobel Prizes? What I'm interested about Nobel Prizes is not about who're getting the awards, but rather what are they awarded for. The Nobel Prizes began with a will by Alfred Nobel (guess who's he?) to reward people who made substantial contributions to humanity and changed the course of history.

Who wins the award?

The first Nobel Prize to be announced (every year) is in Physiology or Medicine. The award for this year goes to Robert G. Edwards from the University of Cambridge.

Robert Edwards

What is it awarded for?

As with any Nobel Prize you'd expect it will be awarded for something that has high impact on our well being. Robert Edwards is awarded the Nobel Prize for a technique called in vitro fertilization, which everybody calls it test tube babies. Test tube babies was first shown in rabbits (not by Robert Edwards) to show that egg cells can be fertilized in test tubes with a sperm and produce baby rabbits.

It turned out that human eggs have an entirely different life cycle from rabbits'. Robert Edwards sorted out everything that regulate maturation of human egg, sought gynacological expertise in obtaining a human egg and viola, the first test tube baby, Louise Brown was born in 1978.

By pioneering IVF, Robert Edwards brought great joy to many infertile couples. Infertility affects 10% of couples worldwide, to date more than 4 million people have been born through this technique. Many of these test tube babies have children and become parents themselves (by natural means). Not only this technique brought joy to couples, IVF has the potential to change the course of world history should any of these test tube babies or their descendants become world leaders. That's why I ask you not to underestimate this contribution of him.

Under normal circumstances, 20 - 30% of attempts lead to birth of a child. Complications in pregnancy can occur but it's very rare. Long term studies of IVF children shows that they are just as healthy as normal children. So, IVF is a safe and proven way to treat infertility.

What are the implications of infertility?

Infertility is not just a medical problem, it poses psychological consequences to affected people as well. Many infertile couples faced disappointment and psychological trauma all their lives. If you put yourself into their shoes, wouldn't IVF come as a gospel to you?

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine became one of the trending topics in Twitter moments after it was announced, so you can see how much it impacted the world. Likewise, the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize trended on Twitter, so stay tuned for my write up on them.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Some day last year, I took a train to Brighton Beach south of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia to watch the sunset.

Coastline of the beach.

The beach is walking distance from the train station. Along the eastern coast of Port Phillip, notable beaches are South Melbourne, St Kilda, Brighton and Sandringham. Unlike typical beaches, Brighton Beach features rough sand and shell debris.

Seashell collectors, anyone?

Jellyfish washed up ashore.

The sea has living jellyfish! Be careful when you enter the body of water.

I took a blood test at the mezzanine floor of Tun Razak Hall 2 (it's another, but co-located event!). Test was done by UCSI Faculty of Applied Science staff. Everything's normal, also a good chat with UCSI students too!